New Cab Plan Curbs Hybrids

By

Ted Mann

Sept. 19, 2012 10:10 p.m. ET

New York City taxi officials are expected Thursday to approve one of the most sweeping changes in years, ratifying the Nissan-built "Taxi of Tomorrow" as the only acceptable new yellow cab starting in 2013, with the goal of making the fleet almost entirely uniform within three years.

But when the Taxi and Limousine Commission makes the Nissan NV-200 mandatory, it will set in motion an unintended change: The shift will drastically reduce the number of hybrid taxis on city streets—now almost half the fleet and what Mayor Michael Bloomberg hailed as a critical improvement in the industry just a few years ago.

"I remember being at a press conference with the mayor five years ago when he said, 'This is a public health issue and kids have asthma and people are dying and we need to get cleaner cars on the road,'" said Ethan Gerber, the executive director of the Greater New York Taxi Association, an organization of medallion owners opposed to the new taxi plan. "We thought this was the future, and we actually geared up for it."

ENLARGE

Nissan's NV-200, shown ahead of the 2012 International Auto Show in New York, won the city's Taxi of Tomorrow competition.
Reuters

Roughly 6,000 of the city's 13,237 yellow cabs are hybrids, Mr. Gerber said. Those vehicles would have to be phased out in favor of the non-hybrid NV-200, with the exception of roughly 1,000 that could be exempt for various reasons, including 273 whose medallions require that they be high-mileage vehicles.

Under TLC rules, medallion owners replace their cabs after three years of service. The Nissan is expected to be available in October 2013 and will be phased in as cabs age.

Mr. Gerber was among a number of speakers opposed to the Taxi of Tomorrow at the TLC's public hearing on the new rules earlier this month. Advocates for the environment and the disabled, who have objected that the standard version of the new cab doesn't accept wheelchairs, also spoke to oppose the change.

They found at least one sympathetic ear in Commissioner Nora Marino, who said she also objected to the plan because it would virtually eliminate hybrids from the fleet and because it limits the choices available to medallion owners.

"We're eliminating choice completely," Ms. Marino said. "You want to have the Taxi of Tomorrow as one choice, fine. Let's have the option to purchase a hybrid. Why are we taking that option off the table completely?"

Nissan won a 10-year contract in May 2011 to provide the exclusive taxi for the city. The TLC expects the NV-200 to get about 25 miles per gallon, compared with roughly 34 miles per gallon for a Ford Escape Hybrid, which make up the bulk of taxi hybrids.

Supporters of the new plan say the criticism is misguided.

"I do think it's absolutely true that the NV-200 is less fuel efficient than the Ford Escape," said TLC Chariman David Yassky said. "On the plus side, it's much roomier, it's safer for the passenger because the partition is built in and crash-tested. It has a host of other amenities. Since it is so much more fuel efficient than the Crown Victoria and within striking distance of the Escape, we thought that's an acceptable trade-off."

In 2007, as Mr. Bloomberg was revealing a number of environmental initiatives, the TLC voted to require higher-mileage vehicles with the goal of creating a largely hybrid fleet by 2012. But medallion owners fought the regulation in court and won.

"Once again, those who benefit the most from the yellow taxi monopoly system are resisting change," said Bloomberg spokeswoman Julie Wood. "That's no surprise, since they have only one concern: increasing profits. The mayor's concern is delivering the safest, most comfortable and most convenient taxi ever."

Before the administration's push for hybrids, roughly 80% of the city taxi fleet was made up of Ford Crown Victorias, which get about 12 miles per gallon. The city is seeking to increase the number of yellow medallions by 2,000, but that effort has been held up by an unrelated court challenge.

City officials say converting to a single model has given them unprecedented leverage to weigh in on details from seat fabric to meter placement.

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